NEW DELHI/VIJAYWADA: Unhappy with finance minister Arun Jaitley's statement in Parliament on the allocation of funds for Andhra Pradesh, the second in the last few days, TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is reported to have told his party MPs that "the Centre is behaving in such a way that it is making people of AP feel that they are not part of the nation".
Naidu, who was in Dubai, called an emergency tele-conference meeting with TDP MPs, including two ministers in the Union Cabinet. He directed the MPs to continue with their protests in Parliament, TDP sources said.
TDP MPs read out Arun Jaitley's statement in Parliament to Naidu during the tele-conference. Some of them told Naidu that TDP should keep up the tough stance towards the Centre. TDP sources said they have been pushed to the corner by the BJP leadership. "Naidu expressed unhappiness over the Centre's response in the last few days and asked us to keep up the protest in Parliament," Tota Narasimham, TDP floor leader in the Lok Sabha, said.
Naidu will hold another tele-conference with his MPs later, sources said, adding that a firm decision would be taken based on the outcome of the talks between AP government and Union government officials on revenue deficit and externally aided projects. Some TDP members, including state HRD minister Ganta Srinivas Rao, said if required, TDP will walk out of NDA.
Meanwhile, BJP sources expressed their unhappiness over TDP's muscle-flexing and said that such brinkmanship could strain equations. "Each time you concede their demand, they come up with new ones. There is a limit to how much you can do for one state when you are having to deal with expectations from others too," the sources said. "There is a strong possibility of position hardening on our side as well if Naidu just goes on raising his ante," the sources said.
